Obverse

Bust of the Virgin orans with the medallion of Christ before her. Sigla: ..Θ̅Υ. No visible border.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

ΘΚΕ,Θ,.ΑΣΙΛΕΙΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΝΤΟΝΦΥΤ,

Θεοτόκε βοήθειΒασιλείῳ ἐπίσκοπον τον Φυτειανῶν

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει Βασιλείῳ ἐπίσκοπον τον Φυτειανῶν.

Mother of God, help Basil, bishop of the people of Phyteia.

Commentary

Laurent quite plausibly identified the owner of the present seal as Basil of Phyteia, known from the works of Nicholas of Andida.

The spelling of the last word of the inscription is imposed by the definite article, which requires a genitive plural, and by the late Roman inscription ὅροι Φυτεανῶν, which was discovered in Kemerkaya and helped to locate the bishopric. We assume that this was the local appellation which appeared on the seal, whereas the more Greek and more official form Φυτείας prevailed in all the notitiae. We think that this detail on our seal supports the identification of the bishopric with the place where the above mentioned inscription was found.

Identified with Kemerkaya (previously Çoğu), Phyteia was throughout history a suffragan bishopric of Synada and appears as such in all notitiaeepiscopatuum. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 397-398; Phrygien und Pisidien, 361-62.